TWO ARTISTS – TWO CURATORS - Attention Recycling - In mid-2001 some of us had the impression that concerning contemporary art something was missing in.

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Präsentation zum Thema: "TWO ARTISTS – TWO CURATORS - Attention Recycling - In mid-2001 some of us had the impression that concerning contemporary art something was missing in."— Präsentation transkript:

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TWO ARTISTS – TWO CURATORS - Attention Recycling - In mid-2001 some of us had the impression that concerning contemporary art something was missing in our place of residence, in Budapest. For a long time, the lack of an infrastructure supporting contemporary culture and encouraging its reception seemed natural, and it also seemed acceptable that the art scene could only be developed from underneath, through the organic categories of kitsch, commerce, saleable – in other words, one would just have to wait until the market players would be able to finance the unconventional, not easily digestible, not light and easy type of culture. However, this recognition had not yet dawned, and the art scene fragmented according to irrelevant categories. Moreover, todays condition is long not that naïve and optimistic consumption-centred, upon which an earlier contemporary art/culture, characteristic of Cold (aka propaganda) War alignment, could be built in the West. The situation changed, and in this new situation the value system of the popular and the elite have been overturned; the popular, become dismal terrain of the the political and commercial marketing manipulations; and the previously rightfully scorned elitism is rendered progressive, locally capable of resisting the manipulations, of a positive value. From the popular will be manipulative demagogue and commerce; while from the elite there is direct, i.e., non- mediated (sensory, real-time), experience that can only be directly lived through. If practically everything has become effectively transmissible, then everything that is not – that is beyond this – is rendered of serious value. Art, for instance. In such a situation we would like to manipulate the local art scene – moreover, with one single effective tool. For a predetermined period of time we would like to establish spaces in which we introduce artworks and artistic strategies on the basis of simply motivated, individual decisions. Our initiative is realised via the inmediate, informal contacts it is built upon, and the collaboration evolving in transit situations, and it is precisely for this reason that it is not success, but the process that is the principal aim, so that the participants may be accomplices in the process that reacts critically to the manipulations. In form, then, we consciously reach back to the strategies of the previous decades, when the artistic movements that were subsequently judged to be important appeared on the periphery of general attention, on the blind spots of the era, and only later became perceptible to the majority.

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Paradoxically, in our city, within a single organic institutional system live simultaneously and complementarily the retarding and deadening symptoms of the all-muffling Socialist (totalitarian) dictatorship, together with the decisive speed that crushes and overwhelms the content and works of globalised power structures. Thus, as opposed to the slowness of the apparatus, the artists are compelled to create up-to-date institutional ideas as a service. The artwork presented to the audience prevents a series of compromises. Due to the tight deadlines, often five minutes are allotted to bringing about one decision regarding these events. Ten years after the changes in the political system, most of the art professionals are still not clear regarding curatorial work, they do not consider collaboration between artists closely pertaining to it. Curatorial work is encumbered by the fact that there were no systematic changes on an institutional level, the institutional framework, thus, of contemporary art operating the slowing symptoms of the old mentality. Thus, this is why our idea occurred, so that we could stretch back to the simplest strategies. The novelty is that we do this not in a saturated, thoughtful medium, but rather we would like to render a chaotic and inattentive medium concerned with the method in which private property and studios are opened to colleagues, interested parties and thus the public. We wait with curiosity to see how this method will function in the shadow of the current institutional structures. Budapest, 2001 október El-Hassan Róza, Hegyi Dóra, Sugár János, Süvecz Emese fmr@mrf.hu

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http://www.year01.com/issue11/europe2.html TWO ARTISTS - TWO CURATORS -Recycled Attention- Two artists - Two curators, has been established in 2001 in Budapest, Hungary by Roza El-Hassan, Dora Hegyi, Janos Sugar and Emese Suvecz. Exhibitions are open for one evening on Fridays between 19:00 and 22:00h and topics range widely. Between the summer of 2001 and 2002, events were presented weekly. On September 20, 2002, London based, David Wilkinson's small porcelain figures were on show, obtained from flee markets. Last November Vadim Fishkin, internationally known artist presented his work and views - just to name two examples. The audience numbers on the average thirty to forty people, but the importance of these events is much better reflected in other projects and shows which were informally initiated at these weekly meetings. Up till now most of the events were shown in the studio of Janos Sugar - from now on nomadic plans are developed for other sites. "I feel that the open discussion and presentation of issues which have been "swept under the carpet" is the most important feature of our activities" - said Janos. These activities were recently featured in the Budapest Box exhibition focusing on "the artist as curator" and presenting alternative Hungarian cultural projects since 1989 in the Ludwig Museum of Budapest/ Museum of Contemporary Art. This exhibition, curated by Dora Hegyi and Katalin Timar was unique in many ways. I was most impressed by the curatorial process which involved the active participation of the exhibiting groups and individual artists. Emese Süvecz works as an independent curator and writer. Trained as an art historian, in her postgraduate studies she focused on gender related issues. Dóra Hegyi, art historian works as a curator at the Ludwig Museum of Budapest/ Museum of Contemporary Art. Roza El-Hassan, artist works with installations, videos, sculpture and has shown her work internationally. Roza has been instrumental in developing collaborative projects between Central European artists. János Sugár studied sculpture at the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest (1979-84) and worked with Indigo, the interdisciplinary art group led by MiklÛs ErdÈly from 1980-86. His work includes installations, performances, as well as film and video. He has been teaching art and media theory in the Intermedia Department of the Hungarian Academy of Fine Arts since 1990, and has exhibited widely throughout Europe and beyond. http://www.icols.org/pages/JSugar/JSugar.html. The interview with Janos Sugar was conducted over e-mail and by personal conversation on September 25, 2002.

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Nina Czegledy: You have initiated the 2 artists 2 curator project less than a year ago. How and why did this initiative become such a successful reality in a city full of galleries and cultural events? Janos Sugar: It started, as every well functioning concept starts, as a series of ad hoc, random, occasional, informal talks among friends. We all worked already together in several forms and contexts, Roza El Hassan, Dora Hegyi and Emese Suvecz. With Roza we exhibited several times together, we both used to work with the Vienna gallerist, Hans Knoll; Dora is a curator of Ludwig Museum/Contemporary Art Museum, Budapest; and Emese was the director of the Budapest branch of Knoll Gallery, Vienna. And we all draw similar consequences from our different activities, namely something is missing in the art scene: attention to a living dialogue. In 2000/2001 the artist group _Kisvarso_ started discussions in their studio, called _Artwork of the Week_. It turned out a huge success, every second week Wednesday evenings 40-50 people discussed one particular artwork. There were other signs that talks, discussions became important, like a new underground movement. The institutions are clumsy, disoriented, or politically manipulated, and, of course, under financed-in the worst case all at the same time. There is no active art criticism; the visual arts are presenting a sort of a blind spot for the general audience. The professional audience suffers in a sort of an attention deficit disorder, there is no systematical critical activity, most of the art history of the last 50, 60 years remains undiscovered. In this aspect the situation did not change in comparison to the eighties in Hungary: contemporary visual art is not part of the intellectual discourse. Meanwhile cultural activity is remarkably strong and colorful. It is a strange contradiction in a country, where the literary scene is rich and professional. NC: I have been very impressed by the spontaneous events you organize. Can you describe these activities and your aims? JS: Between October 19. and March 22. we organized every Friday from 7 to 10 PM one-night exhibitions, all together 30. Originally we planned other sites as well, but since we had a cold winter the venue was my studio, where I have heating. My studio is rather small, the exhibition area is about 30 sqm, but it is in a good location: on the ground floor in a backyard in the center of the city. We exhibited artworks/artistic strategies which we liked and considered important to think about. I call it _attention recycling_. We showed a broad range of artists from well known painters to Estonian videos, from cartoon artist to the black books of graffiti artists, etc. So, there was always an interesting small show, and with such a background most of the discussions centered on art. And we made another important decision, that instead of the low quality, so called gallery wine, we tried to offer some better wine, this was our main investment. We organized chairs too, so people could just sit and hang out. I consider the whole thing rather paradigmatic, as the role of art is changing the _real life_ aspect of art becomes important.

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NC: Please tell me about your audience JS: We deliberately didn't want to reach masses, we were curious to see if the _mouth propaganda_ works. We sent out only e-mails, which is a very low key solution in the competitive "invitation-card" world. We attracted about 40 regulars, mainly artists and curators. Soon the whole thing developed into an informal weekly meeting point for them, for us. There were several projects, initiatives starting from a discussion at the studio to a small show in the Budapest Ludwig Museum/Contemporary Art Museum, curated by Dora Hegyi; and an online newsletter (editor Katalin Timar). NC: You are a practicing artist. Can you tell me about your work in more detail? JS: I am in-between smaller and larger shows, and yet uncertain projects. I just had a gallery show in Rome (CafÈ Europe, Center for Contemporary Art). The video I made in the last year (Typewriter of the Illiterate, DV 8Min) is purchased by the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art. This video will be shown in an itinerary exhibition entitled "Without emergency exit", organized by MECAD of Barcelona. Now I am just looking for post production support of a nearly finished feature length film, Faust Again. NC: What are your plans for the future? JS: There will be a large exhibition called _Budapest Box_ in the Budapest Ludwig Museum/Contemporary Art Museum, curated by Dora Hegyi and Katalin Timar, and the theme is: Artists as Curators. The show tries to present all the artists initiated galleries, independent programs of the nineties. The KMKK will of course participate. And we plan to go further with the KMKK idea - maybe in other forms. Nina Czegledy 10.02